1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information distribution apparatus, an information distribution system, an information distribution method, and a recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, content of various kinds is recorded in books and on magnetic recording media, such as video tapes, and physical media, such as compact discs (CDs), digital video discs (DVDs), and blue-ray Discs (BDs). Furthermore, in recent years, digital content, such as music, moving images, and electronic books, that is not recorded in media has been provided on the Internet, and users are viewing and listening to this digital content on terminal devices, such as smart phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and personal computers (PCs).
Furthermore, systems using conventional techniques are available that allow purchased content to be enjoyed regardless of whether it is on packaged media or digitally distributed (Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2005-056240). Specifically, a content owner gives a content use right for content that a user requests to acquire and the user pays compensation for this use right. When the user sends a delivery request for the content for which the use right has been given to the user, the content owner delivers the content to the user by converting uncompressed content to the data form that was specified when the request was sent. Alternatively, when a user makes a request to acquire content off-line, the content owner converts the content, for which the use right has been given to the user, to the data form that is specified when the request was sent, records the content on a specified recording medium, and then delivers the content to the user.
However, with the conventional techniques, unless the user purchases the use right for an item of given content, the user is not able to enjoy the content both on a physical medium and via data distribution. Specifically, with the conventional techniques, even if a user purchased a medium in which the content is normally recorded, the user again needs to purchase the use right for the content in order to receive the same content digitally. Consequently, even when a user likes some content that is recorded in a purchased medium, it is difficult for the user to easily enjoy the same content via digital distribution. Furthermore, there may be a system in which digital content is unconditionally delivered to the user who purchased the medium; however, it is not possible to secure the use right protection of the content.